Columbians founded four major American publishing houses: Harcourt Brace and Company, now Harcourt, Inc. (Clifford Brace, Columbia College 1904 and Alfred Harcourt, Columbia College 1904), Random House (Bennett Cerf, Columbia College 1919, Journalism 1920), Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, now part of Random House, Inc. (Alfred A. Knopf, Columbia College 1912), and Simon and Schuster (Richard L. Simon, Columbia College 1920 and Max Lincoln Schuster, Columbia College 1919).

Another major publisher, Doubleday (now also a part of Random House), was not founded by a Columbian, but later headed by one. Douglas Black (Columbia College 1916, Law 1918) was its president from 1946 to 1963.